Biography of Henry E. EatonMadison County, NY Biographies

Eaton, Henry E., p. o. Eaton. Allen Nelson Wood, senior partner of the firm of Wood, Tabor & Morse, long
manufacturers of portable and agricultural steam engines, was born in Smith Valley, August 14. 1818, and was the
son of Captain Allen and Luciuda (Neweomb) Wood. Captain Wood was one of the early notable characters in this county,
a prominent Mason and by trade a spinner in the mills at Smith Valley. A Masonic funeral was held on the occasion
of his death in 1822. The Newcombs were descended from an honored English family, Captain Newcoxnb, father of Mrs.
A. N. Wood, having been a man of considerable distinction. Allen N. Wood spent his early life in Smith Valley and
when about eighteen years old went to Poolville and started a machine and repair shop in company with his uncle,
Enos Wood. In 1843 they went to Pierceville and set up the machinery in the mill at that place, but in 1845 located
permanently at Eaton village, where they began experimenting and making in a small way portable engines, retaining,
however, the machine repair shops to maintain them in business. In 1857 the business was removed to Utica and continued
until February. 1859, when Mr. Wood returned to Eaton and established the firm of A. N. Wood & Co., succeeded
by Wood, Tabor & Morse, builders of portable and agricultural engines, which was one of the leading industries
of its time in the country, contributed greatly to the prosperity of the village and yielded a fortune to its proprietors.
Mr. Wood was the practical mechanic and manager of the business, the latter being perhaps his special field, for
he could not only build engines, but could and did transact the outside business, selling the engines with remarkable
success and was equally successful in getting pay for them when other similar industries were suffering losses
through insolvent debtors. Altogether Mr. Wood was one of the best men in the business history of Eaton village,
and his unfortunate death (September 22, 1892) together with the death of Mr. Tabor in the same year, resulted
in closing the shops in 1893 by Walter Morse, the only surviving partner of the firm. In 1842, on January 11, Mr.
Wood married Calista M. Eaton, by whom he had one daughter, Olivia C., wife of Henry E. Eaton, a native of Fayetteville,
for sixteen years a druggist in Syracuse. a student in Hamilton College. who left his class and on September 5,
1864. enlisted as private in Co. H, 2d N. Y. VoL Cav., promoted quartermaster sergeant and was mustered out June
5, 1865.

FROM:
Our County and it's people
A Descriptive and Biographical Record of
Madison County, New York
Edited by: John E. Smith
The Boston History Co., Publishers 1890